Shimon Sheves, who served as head of PM´s Office under slain premier,
says assassin´s brother should have been kept in jail ´til his body
rotted.´ Yossi Sarid: His release made me nauseous

"Such a man should have remained in prison until the end of his
days," Shimon Sheves, a former aide to Yitzhak Rabin, said Friday in
response the release of Hagai Amir, the brother of the late prime
minister´s assassin.

"The only way he should have been let out of prison is in a casket,"
said Sheves, who served as director general of the Prime Minister´s
Office during the Rabin government.

Hagai Amir (44) was released earlier in the day after serving 16.5
years in prison for conspiring with his brother Yigal Amir to kill
Rabin.

Upon leaving the Ayalon Prison gates, Amir made a ´V´ sign with his
hand, and told reporters: "I am proud of what I did. I have no
regrets."

"I feel awful. I want to scream out that - from a moral standpoint -
(he should have) remained in prison for life," Sheves told Ynet.

Those who were involved in the assassination wanted to "deal the
State of Israel and the Israeli nation a devastating blow," the
former Rabin aide said. "This man (Hagai Amir) did not pull the
trigger, but he prepared the bullets for the pistol. Therefore, he
belongs in prison – until his body rots behind bars. The court´s
decision contradicts values and morality.

"The wound has yet to heal. A significant part of Israeli society was
not too unhappy when the scoundrel murdered (Rabin). Some of them
were key accomplices to the incitement that led to the murder. So
today is not a day of joy, but a day of mourning. For me, it is
another day of mourning," Sheves said.

Yossi Sarid, who served as education minister in Rabin´s government,
said Hagai Amir´s release made him "nauseous."

"I feel like throwing up," the former leftist politician told
Ynet. "This is yet another case in which what the law requires is not
always the right thing to do. I believe Hagai Amir´s statement that
he is proud of what he did has legal significance. A person who says
he is proud of what he did would certainly want another opportunity
to commit such an act. His statement is ominous. After such a
warning, someone should have (sent him) right back to prison."

Opposition Chairman Shaul Mofaz posted a response on his Facebook
page: "Israeli society will not forgive or forget his involvement in
the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. I urge the Shin Bet
(internal security service) to closely follow Hagai Amir´s every
move."

Earlier, Hagai Amir visited Elad, where his sister resides. Amir
arrived with his parents and sister-in-law Larissa Amir-Trimbobler,
but he was asked to leave the haredi city before Shabbat.
"Had we known that (Amir) was coming, perhaps we would have simply
closed the entrance gate," one of the residents told Ynet. "This is
not a city of refuge. Had he been allowed to remain here over the
Sabbath, he probably would have come to the synagogue for prayers –
how could we tolerate such a thing? It would have been a desecration
of God´s name."